Introduction
Towards the end of the 1999 cult classic film, The Matrix, Neo, after transforming into the all-powerful The One, says, “I can see everything clearly now.” The camera then shifts to Neo’s point of view, displaying a cascade of ones and zeros against a green screen. The filmmaker wants the viewer to see that Neo can now access the duality behind the Matrix—a simulation created by machines to keep humans in a state of stupor while their bodies are used as bio-electric fuel for the machine civilisation. The simulation immerses human beings into the world as it was in 1999, and life inside the Matrix is designed to be as normal as possible to create a sense of presence for the users while precluding them from ever thinking of the greater reality beyond the simulation.
The aim of virtual reality (VR)-based applications and hardware is to create such user immersion inside a synthetic environment, though for purely benign and educative purposes. However, the current peculiarities of the hardware, software, and user requirements have created a number of devices and programmes that combine elements of both physical and virtual reality. This mixed reality (MR) can be thought of as forming part of a reality–virtuality continuum with the physical and virtual environments (VE) acting as extreme bounds. Two intermediate states of augmented reality (AR), which comprises the use of certain equipment and data to accentuate the user’s perception of the physical world, and augmented virtuality (AV), which is the augmentation of VE with real or unmodelled imaging data, fall between the two bounds.[1]
VR and AR have increased relevance for warfighting, as VR models worlds and conditions that are impossible to create in a laboratory or on training grounds for safety reasons, and adds to a quantitative and systematised approach towards training. AR, meanwhile, adds a layer of additional information (audio, visual, haptic) between the soldier and their physical world and heightens certain sensory performances required for the battlefield. Whether these are cost-effective and adequately ruggedised needs to be studied carefully.
War as a Game
In the 1977 Bollywood movie, Shatranj ke Khiladi, war is depicted as a fusion of war and a chess game between two kings. Unlike in a game, however, there are no rebirths or second chances in a war. Soldiers or ‘players’ cannot respawn at a given location to continue the fight. Unlike a video game player, a soldier does not have omniscience on the battlefield, nor is the call for airstrikes or additional resources delivered in quick time. There are additional challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), informing the next of kin (NoK) of soldiers killed in action, and treatment of prisoners of war. All these are missing in games. Does that mean that games have no connection with war?
Ironically, games play an important and rather critical role in warfighting, but not in the way one would typically imagine. Gamification is the use of game-style incentives, such as rewarding users for achievements, earning badges, and ‘levelling-up’, which are used to motivate individuals to carry their game-based learning to real life.[2] Johan Huizinga said in 1938 that humankind’s most important activity belonged to the realm of fantasy and that play was the structuring element of all cultures, the function by which man created subjectivity.[3] The use of quantifiable indicators to earn points, improve performance, and perform ‘what-if’ thought experiments—i.e., using games for analysing and manipulating human behaviour—takes inspiration from the quantitative movement in institutes such as the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton and the RAND Corporation in California.[4]
Game theory was created in the United States (US) keeping in mind the ‘rational’ human being, one who looked after only his own interests and maximised his rewards.[5] Based on these ‘games’, the entire strategic canon of the Cold War was devised, containing terms such as ‘brinksmanship’, ‘deterrence’, and ‘compellence’.[6] Simulations were run on the effect of nuclear weapons on cities and forces, and based on these calculations, targeting strategies were modified and doctrines designed and redesigned.[7] Games have therefore played a major part in the US strategic posture, at least since the Second World War.
Another area where simulations have played a huge part, and continue to do, is theoretical physics and cosmology, where even the notion of proving hypotheses regarding the origin of the universe or observing the nuclear reactions within stars is not possible directly.[8] The word ‘gamification’ itself entered the contemporary lexicon in 1978 when Richard Bartle coined it in the context of a game called Multi User Dungeon (MUD). Several games were designed in the early 1980s to enhance learning using three core features of games: goals, competition, and narrative.[9]
VR and the Military
The mainstreaming of VR began with the entertainment industry in the US with the intention of immersing the user within a movie using all of their five senses. Morton Heilig, a professional cinematographer, developed the “Sensorama” in 1962 as a rudimentary VR device.[10] Ivan Sutherland wrote about the ‘ultimate display’ in 1965 that would include interactive graphics, force-feedback devices, audio, smell, and taste.[11] Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and founder of VPL Research, coined the term ‘virtual reality’ in 1987.[12]
In terms of the military, the introduction of VR was in the form of flight simulators for training pilots.[13] From thereon, the utility of VR has involved the increasing use of VE, i.e., digitally created worlds either mediated through real-world inputs or totally insulated from it. VR as a military utility has grown to encompass computer simulations, computer games, flight simulators, networked simulators for small teams, formation simulators, joint simulators, and even multi-domain simulators for combat tasks. Another area where VR is being used, at least in the US, is in military medicine to treat PTSD in soldiers returning from deployment. Complex and invasive surgical procedures are also being simulated in VR, and the same is imparted to military doctors through transfer of training. This is because the use of VR accords certain advantages to military personnel. The basic set-up of VR in any industry is an input device (including haptic gloves, microphones, joystick, and motion sensors), a processor, and output devices.[14] Before diving into the findings of the studies, however, it is important to define certain terms specific to the AR and VR fields.
(a) Immersion: Refers to the tracking and display that a VR/AR system delivers to the user. This can be measured objectively. As per Mel Slater, the more a system delivers displays and tracking that preserves fidelity to their equivalent real-world sensory modalities, the more immersive it is.[15]
(b) Presence: Presence, which cannot be measured yet, is the subjective experience of the user inside a VR world. In other words, presence is a human reaction to the immersion. Given the same levels of immersion, different humans can experience different levels of presence. One of the primary reasons to achieve presence through a VR system is to elicit human physiological responses that would be commensurate with that of the real world. There are two ways to achieve presence. One is to mirror reality within the VR to such fidelity that there is no distinction between the virtual and physical worlds.[16] The second is to extract the relevant sensory stimuli through knowledge of the perceptual system, i.e., to find out what is important in a human’s representation of reality and deliver presence without a high level of immersion.
(c) Tracking: The tracking sensors and devices are the main components of the VR system. They interact with the system’s processing unit and relay the user’s orientation to the system. These include electromagnetic, acoustic, mechanical, and optical tracking systems.[17]
(d) Registration: This is a term used for AR systems and can be defined as a process that merges virtual objects generated by a computer with real-world images caught by a camera to create an accurate alignment of the two. Without accurate registration, the issue of the virtual object ‘dangling’ in the overlaid graphic without context cannot be ruled out, defeating the purpose of using AR.
The subsequent sections detail the findings and conclusions of various studies on the military aspects of VR.[a]
A game-based learning environment was created to improve the training and results of rifle firing for 160 high school students in Taiwan, all with prior gaming experience. The results of the study showed that a combination of real-world training and rifle simulator and 3D VR training led to a significant improvement in the shooting scores of the students.[18] These ‘games’ in which storytelling is applied outside the context of entertainment are known as ‘serious games’.[19] Their aim is to educate and facilitate transfer of training from the virtual to the physical world. This has both its supporters and detractors. Academics writing in the early 1990s—at a time when image, audio, and haptic processing had not reached the immersive level of today—were dismissive of the value of VR-based training and any transfer of skills back to the physical world.[20] The challenge today, however, is different. How can one transfer military knowledge and experience gained by soldiers in combat during their tours of duty to 18-year-olds? Is the immersive environment the answer?
A 2022 study by Boyce et al. shows that increasing the fidelity of the terrain representation or the ‘immersivity’ of the simulation does not increase the overall understanding of the terrain in a simulated mission planning environment.[21] One must remember that, for a majority of the youth undergoing these simulations for the first time, most of the basic skills acquired during combat by their predecessors—fire and move, hand-to-hand combat, taking cover during artillery barrages—will be new to them and will necessitate a lot of trial and error with no guarantees that the correct skills will be learnt. There might be need for a knowledge representation system within VR that quantifies, measures, and then faithfully reproduces the stimuli required to respond to combat situations while providing detailed feedback on the actions of the trainees. One critique of the current process of military training using VR is that it serves as a practice platform rather than a training device.[22] In other words, there is a presumption of the presence of certain skills that need to be honed rather than starting from scratch. As a result, these VR and simulation-based scenarios are minimally guided and not designed as per the cognitive capabilities of the trainees.
An Aviation Combined Arms Trainer designed for the US Army enables training of heterogeneous mobile units based on armoured formations and combat aviation assets, with a modular design that allows for a change of mission. Multiple simulators are networked together using standardised distributed interactive simulation protocols that allow for joint training amongst geographically dispersed units.[23] The Taiwanese military has experimented with body area networks where training data is collected on individual soldiers when they are inserted into a VR military simulator. This provides researchers greater access to the soldier’s physical actions and postures as they occur in real-time training.[24] They can form a bridge between physical and virtual environments as future simulations can be devised with the expected stances of soldiers in mind. Accelerometers, when combined with VR-based training scenarios, can also assist in monitoring stress in soldiers in real time.[25] Assessing the fidelity of VEs in judgement decisions of shoot/do not shoot scenarios (which form the core of soldiering), a study[b] found that live-fire and VR had similar results while 2D video presented little decision-making challenge to the soldiers. The findings indicated that 2D video had a lower ranking than either VR or live-fire in terms of creating decision dilemmas, thus making the training lessons stick.
Learning under stress conditions can be recalled easier. In psychology, this is termed as “state-dependent learning.”[26] Construct Validity[27] or the effectiveness of a training simulation to sufficiently represent the functionality of the skill-to-be-acquired needs to be kept in mind when designing simulations. A comparative study by the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Institute for Aerospace Medicine on the use of simulators and standard procedures by the Indian and the US Air Forces for countering spatial disorientation (SD) found that the IAF used a customised SD simulator for trainee as well as operational pilots, resulting in a far more improved response to SD-related air disasters.[28] This is another example of transferring skills from the virtual to the physical world. Furthermore, VR is being used in analysing and witnessing the trajectory and impact of hi-tech ammunition such as rockets and missiles.[29] Apart from combat and deployment-related training, VRs are also used in two other highly critical areas related to the military: medicine and cultural communication.
The Office of Naval Research, based on user feedback, developed the Virtual Iraq application with a ‘virtual Afghanistan’ scenario as an addendum in an initial open clinical trial with 20 soldiers, positive clinical outcomes, such as improvement in neuro-cognitive functioning, memory and learning, spatial cognition, and executive functioning.[30] One of the more practical uses of VR, also emphasised by the US Department of Defense in their Comprehensive Soldier Fitness programme, is stress resilience testing.[c],[31] VR exposure therapy uses a mix of cognitive–behavioural treatment (CBT) with prolonged exposure (PE) that is delivered through multi-sensory and context-relevant cues that evoke the trauma, the intensity of which can be calibrated by the clinician. The use of PE as a psychotherapeutic tool is based on the emotional processing theory that states that PTSD involves “pathological fear structures” when information represented in the structures is encountered. Treatment using this theory calls for the emotional processing of the fear structures to modify their pathological elements so that the stimuli do not provoke fear.[32]
VR is also viewed as an innovative and effective stress training programme as it can help in assessing an individual’s resilience to stress and in identifying the importance of stress on physiological reactivity and performance. Stress management training in military medicine is a holistic concept that looks at both stress inoculation training and resilience training. While the former increases stress tolerance through exposure, the latter looks at stress management.[33] VR phobia therapy looks at using VR to activate the patient’s fear structures. For this, the VE must produce sufficiently realistic sensory stimuli to trigger fear and requires a high degree of fidelity to real-world structures.[34] In terms of immersion, an evaluation of the AMADEUS VR system used by civil engineers to study the aspects of tunnelling has found that increasing the level of immersion in the VR led to greater spatial understanding.[35] Since tunnelling through rocks for making roads and pipelines are complex tasks, high levels of immersion in terms of stereoscopy can lead to improved task performance.
In terms of cultural communication, VR has many uses, some of which are already being indirectly applied in commercial video games. The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI), especially large language models in video games for character development for role playing games, has expedited the trend towards individualisation of narratives and characters within the game.[36] The presence of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) in VR applications who are versed in the local dialect and can model local customs and behaviours in the areas where troops have to be deployed[d] will prove to be useful for armies deployed in unfamiliar terrain.
Terrain familiarisation is another area that can be modelled using VR and troops practised on the same. India, one of the largest contributors of soldiers to multiple United Nations (UN) missions across the globe, can benefit from these technologies, and the Centre for UN Peacekeeping can take a lead in test bedding VR technologies for training Indian troops. The US Army has had success in the use of VR-based applications for training their troops for overseas deployments. A 2003 report by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Research and Technology Organisation lists the use of VR in military operations other than war where IVAs can simulate indigenous personnel, communicate non-verbal cues associated with foreign cultures, and function as coaches and mentors for trainees.[37]
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) merges the virtual and the physical worlds. Although it has become synonymous with a helmet-mounted display (HMD) or see-through glasses, AR has also been consumerised in the form of mobile applications like Pokemon Go.[38] It is a blend of technologies that accentuate the user’s perception of the physical reality. One of the more prominent examples of AR is the series of space telescopes launched by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the latest iteration being the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Though JWST ‘sees’ in the infrared range, the images are translated into a form that is visible to the human user.[39] AR can also extend into the auditory and haptic domains, using devices, technologies, and processes to increase human perceptivity of a particular strand of the physical reality.[40] For the military, AR can be used to augment situational awareness through the merging of multiple intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance streams, generating a common operational picture and then disseminating them to the soldiers on the ground through an HMD. However, this will also require an intelligent and context-aware AR application to cater to the chaotic and dynamic battlefield. In closely contested areas with multiple agents and installations, there is a danger of information overload on the soldier, which may retard rather than enhance their sense of the combat zone.
An urban terrain is considered to be the ideal setting for an AR-based device due to two reasons: rapid urbanisation of areas previously considered and suited for mechanised warfare, and the issue of clutter necessitating the use of AR in the first place. An urban warfare AR has three objectives: transparent battlefield, intuitional perception, and natural interaction.[41] For this, better hardware, powerful software, and a much more integrated process of combining geographical information systems with a virtual geographic environment are essential. In peacetime, AR has multiple uses, such as enhancing the level of detail in table-top and sand-model wargames,[42] maintenance training for military equipment,[43] and even merging AR with the web (Web AR)[44]—a superb tool that can be used for augmenting open-source intelligence data for effective debunking of disinformation operations.
Use of AR and VR in the Indian Armed Forces
The Indian Armed Forces have slowly started utilising VR to simulate and immerse soldiers into virtual training grounds, while using VR-based war games to practise operational strategies at the same time. Whereas simulators have been a part of the forces’ inventory since the 1970s, the induction of VR-based systems has taken place only in the last few years. Indeed, in the Army Commanders’ Conference of April 2023, the Raksha Mantri reviewed an equipment display that also comprised VR-based systems.[45] The Indian Army has a wargaming centre that is in the process of employing VR and AR technologies in conjunction with AI and data analytics to create metaverse-enabled gameplay.[46] Incidentally, “metaverse for mental health” has been adjudged as one of the top ten emerging technologies of 2023 by the World Economic Forum.[47] A custom-built CBT tool will be used for teaching strategies to student officers and extrinsic factors will also be included and/or modified.[48]
Some Indian defence start-ups have also developed VR applications. HoloSuit, a motion capture haptic suit, has nine haptic feedback devices fitted across the body. When connected to the HoloSuit Engine on any mobile or desktop operating system, the application creates an instant 3D avatar that faithfully reproduces the user’s movements, in effect providing a wealth of stance, posture, and reactivity data for in-depth training.[49] The suit is reportedly being used by the Indian Armed Forces. Another start-up, Mumbai-based Parallax Labs, has developed a VR-based personal flight simulator. The first prototype is installed at a naval aviation unit in Goa while talks are on for a second one in Nashik.[50] Certain army units are also using VR systems for terrain familiarisation along the Line of Control.[51] Missile simulators[52] are being used by personnel of the Corps of Army Air Defence to provide realistic targeting practice without expending precious surface-to-air missiles.
Meanwhile, AR is being recognised as a breakthrough for mechanised operations, a fact that has been acknowledged in the updated request for information (RFI) for see-through armour in the future-ready combat vehicle (FRCV)[53] which is slated to start domestic production in 2030.[54] A see-through armour combines data and footage from multiple sources, such as drones and nearby vehicles and overlays the same onto a tank gunner’s sight, enabling increased field of view within the safety of the tank. The FRCV is also supposed to be integrated with assets on land and air, ensuring a longer detection range and enhancing situational awareness—it is another reason why a tethered drone system has also been included in the FRCV RFI.[55] The increasing importance of AR and VR systems in the Indian Armed Forces was also reflected during multiple editions of India’s Def Expo, which have witnessed these systems being displayed for visiting dignitaries.[56]
Conclusion
VR and AR systems have proliferated globally and have important uses in the military and civil domains. However, there are certain challenges that need to be overcome before these new technologies can be considered safe and utilisable for the Indian Armed Forces. Still unknown, for example, is the psychological impact of long-term usage of VR applications on soldiers. (In 2020, a study on the effects of video games on Indian students and teenagers found that online gaming can have an adverse impact on the emotional and behavioural development of young adults.[57] There are also reports that youth between 12 and 25 who indulge in online gaming are more prone to committing violence in the physical world.[58])
Recruits applying for the military are typically in the age bracket of 17–19, and therefore, more vulnerable to being hooked on VR-based games. Some have termed the use of promotional video games and VR simulations by certain armies as ‘militainment’.[59] Ironically, the level of immersion sought within VR has to conform, in certain stimuli-based aspects, to the physical reality, thereby increasing the user’s “sense of presence”. This has to be balanced by constant monitoring and mentoring of the recruits. Another aspect that merits consideration is the cost–benefit analysis of saving on ammunition, training time, and pollution vis-à-vis the relatively high installation costs of simulators that will also require seamless connectivity, high-definition rendering software, specialised screens, and motion sensors. These will need to be calculated and analysed on a long-term rather than an immediate basis. With the declining cost of wearable technology and likelihood of indigenisation of chip production capacity, there is opportunity for the VR and AR fields to be enmeshed more firmly with the armed forces, provided requisite safeguards are maintained.
The first version of this brief appeared in the ORF-GP volume, Future Warfare and Critical Technologies: Evolving Tactics and Strategies, which can be accessed here: .
Endnotes
[a] These studies have been carried out mostly in the US, but also in Taiwan, Spain, Argentina, and Malaysia.
[b] The study had a sample size of 39 Royal Air Force dismounted soldiers.
[c] This is based on the view that it is not the event that causes the emotion but how a person appraises the event, which is intertwined with the emotion. The focus is on teaching coping skills to soldiers.
[d] Such deployment can be for humanitarian and disaster relief operations, or else peacekeeping missions.
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[3] J. Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press, 1950): 89-105.
[4] A. B. Bhattacharya, The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann (Manchester: Allen Lane, 2021): 143.
[5] F. M. Fisher, “Games Economists Play: A Noncooperative View,” The RAND Journal of Economics 20, no. 1 (1989), https://www.jstor.org/stable/2555655.
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[16] Department of Computer Science of the University College of London, “A Note on Presence Terminology by M.L. Slater”
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[39] James Webb Space Telescope, “Frequently Asked Questions Lite,” Goddard Space Flight Centre, https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/faqLite.html#:~:text=Although%20Webb%20images%20are%20infrared,just%20as%20beautiful%20as%20Hubble%E2%80%99s.
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[45] Ministry of Defence, Government of India, https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1917883.
[46] Vaibhav Jha, “Explained: Project WARDEC – India’s Upcoming AI-Powered Wargame Centre,” The Indian Express, May 21, 2022, https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-project-wardec-india-ai-powered-wargame-centre-7928387/.
[47] Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, & Frontiers Media, “Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023,” World Economic Forum, https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Top_10_Emerging_Technologies_of_2023.pdf?_gl=1*xhg1kg*_up*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7uSkBhDGARIsAMCZNJuUACSApsUoc1trCFBGB2W0L2_mtHLhcTVqV8ZpohbK45PYHPYPPMkaAjiQEALw_wcB.
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